NASCAR charter dispute moves to injunction hearing over six charters

A high-stakes dispute over NASCAR’s charter system moved to a pivotal pretrial moment as teams 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports sought to block the sanctioning body from selling any of the six charters they hold, while NASCAR signaled plans to issue a new charter for the 2026 season to an undisclosed team. The development comes ahead of a scheduled injunction hearing and amid a broader antitrust lawsuit that has already reshaped how teams participate in the sport and raised questions about the stability of the 2025 and 2026 fields.

The core of the dispute centers on NASCAR’s charter system, which guarantees a starting spot and a share of the sport’s revenue for a set number of teams. Since the 2024 shakeup that saw Stewart-Haas Racing divest four charters and the remaining teams negotiate anew, 23XI Racing and FRM have operated with two charters each, expanding to a total of six entries when they purchased additional charters from SHR and signed on as charter entrants. The lawsuits contend that NASCAR maintains monopoly-like power and uses exclusionary practices to suppress competition. In recent court filings, the parties have laid out starkly different visions for the...